India now goading Russia to play important role in Afghanistan

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From Fazle Rashid
NEW YORK, Mar 13: Having perhaps failed to enlist Washington's support for a wider role in Afghanistan, India is now goading Russia to play an important role. India wants to be the key player in Kabul after the exit of NATO forces from there. Russia having burnt its finger in the last expedition is unlikely to jump at Indian move. Russia has preferred to keep focus on drug trafficking rather than plunging into a fuller international engagement where its previous foray ended in a disaster. India by all means wants to prevent Pakistan from dictating terms in the event of a rapproachment between Talebans and Karzai government which now appears to be a distinct possibility.
New Delhi is concerned that a NATO withdrawal could lead Afghanistan falling under the control of the extremists undermining regional security and handing Pakistan more influence, an analyst said. The NATO alliance will be wary of deeper dialogue between Russia and India. The US and other western powers would like India to remain aligned with NATO.
The killing in Pakistan goes on unabated. No one has the count of how many have been killed in recent months. In the latest blast in public place on Friday more than 53 died and 100 were wounded. The Talebans fighting might is so clearly visible. The international equations are changing rapidly. The two key global players are the US and China. The international politics is woven around them. China is more free to flex its muscles with no hurdles facing them while the United States is confronted with host of vexing problems. China's bilateral ties are on Beijing's terms. It has expressed its distaste for any third party meddling.
The west must not teach the Chinese what they have to do with the renminbi because otherwise they will never do it. It is so clear, said a former president of European Commission. The US and China are approaching a potentially destabilising confrontation.
If China refuses to adopt a more market oriented exchange rate as suggested by President Obama there is good chance of the US would label China as currency manipulator. China rejected criticism of its human rights record by the US State Department as hypocritical and published its own report about human rights in the US. The United States has not only a terrible domestic human rights record, it is also the main source of human rights disasters worldwide, a reputed paper quoted the Chinese report as saying.